<p>I was wondering if I could take the MCAT, PCAT, and DAT. Not all at the same time. I am not sure what I want to do...so i wanted to see how i score on the tests and decide according on how I do. has anyone over heard of this before or know anyone who has done this? plz help...</p>
<p>Not a good idea for a number of different reasons. </p>
<p>1) While the sciences covered are fairly similar, there's enough difference between the exams, that it would be extremely time consuming to have to study for all three. Further, the MCAT has a format that's very different than the other two. </p>
<p>2) There's far more involved in admissions into these professional schools than simply your test scores. Certainly there is a believe amongst the uninformed that if you don't make it into medical school you can just be a dentist or pharmacist...this is simply not true. The competition for these schools is nearly as stiff as that for medical school and the schools are looking for activities that demonstrate you are dedicated to the profession. Shadowing is an important activity in all three, but you don't expect a dental school to impressed by your time spent shadowing a pharmacist, or a medical school to like your time spent in a denture lab. </p>
<p>3) While these tests are important, they're only fair predictors of how you'll do in each school. Further, because they're predicated on a knowledge of science (though the MCAT is less knowledge based than the others), good test takers with strong science skills will probably do well on all them. They aren't unique enough for you to say "well I really bombed the MCAT and the PCAT but did okay on the DAT so I guess I was born to be a dentist". The scores simply don't give any insight into how you'll enjoy each profession.</p>
<p>4) On that note, there are some very big differences between the three and just because you don't know what you want to do now, doesn't mean you won't find out that one or two of these fields (Medicine itself is so diverse as it is) absolutely incompatible with your personality. </p>
<p>So what does all this mean?</p>
<p>You need to get experiences within each of these fields, figure out which you feel is a better fit, and then throw all your effort towards getting into that field.</p>